The delay, according to the AP, resulted from the significant volume of information to be processed. One option continues to be the current home of the team — Ralph Wilson Stadium.

“I’ve said all along the one thing we cannot do is take off the table Ralph Wilson Stadium,” Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz told the AP. “We’re investing $130 million there, one of the reasons it was done was not only to make it good for the next five to ten years, but many years thereafter. After the investments we’re doing now it’s going to be a different stadium and when people go there this fall they’re going to realize that it’s still very viable to have ‘the Ralph’ as the home of the Bills.”

Regardless of the potential options identified by the L.A. firm hired to prepare the report, the new owner will have a major say in what ultimately happens. Especially since the lease allows the Bills to exit with a buyout clause after the 2019 season. And since the lease expires after the 2022 season.

While few expect the Bills to move to a place like L.A., the threat of a move could be the primary catalyst for whatever the new owner wants. No one will know what the new owner wants until we know who the new owner is.

There are a number of stadiums in the league older the the Ralph that are still in use. Has it deteriorated
that badly that it’s no longer viable in 10 years? Why wouldn’t a good renovation give it 30 or 40 more years? No one is tearing down Soldier Field or Lambeau. The NFL sees an opportunity to get a new stadium with free money and they are putting the screws to Buffalo.

mrlaloosh says:Jul 13, 2014 7:08 PM

Trump will demand a new stadium with a retractable roof. Book it. Buffalo will be used as a whipping boy to entice other markets to try and get the Bills. London Bills?

I wish my Bolt’s Qualcomm stadium was an old, sick horse, so we could shoot it in the head and get a new one. Got to be in the top 2 or 3 worst stadiums in the league. People keep telling me that the Raiders stadium is worse, so maybe I’ll finally believe it since I hear it so often, but the Q is simply a wretch of a place. So I don’t want to hear Bills fans complain about their home.

ccc23454 says:Jul 13, 2014 7:54 PM

rich/ralph has got a good 15-20 years left but not much more. don’t rule anything out for a new owner, get team start planning on move downtown with new modern stadium

vekster1820 says:Jul 13, 2014 8:01 PM

Let’s see how many current stadiums are just as old or older than the Ralph… Oakland, SanDiego, Lambeau, Soldier Field, Arrowhead, the Superdome is old too. Not saying I wouldn’t want a new stadium but other than more luxury boxes that would be too expensive, what is the reason? The greed of the NFL is sickening. I wish I could get a free lease for the building I run my business from.

joetoronto says:Jul 13, 2014 8:29 PM

The NFL will grant the Toronto group a temporary exemption to use the Rogers Centre, until the new stadium is built.

That takes away the problem of having a lame duck franchise in Buffalo for years.

The team isn’t moving… Pegula is buying them. State officials know this they want to push for private funding since the Jacobs( Delaware North) will want an interest in it. That’s all this is. I would be fine with a 10 year plan. I live near the Ralph and the renovations are actually pretty nice.

Massive renovations is honestly the most viable option. Building a stadium in the city of Buffalo is a two fold problems. Where there is accessibility to hold 75k fans pouring in, there isn’t the space for a stadium, and where there is the space for a stadium within the city limits there isn’t accessibility

Meanwhile the current location has both, and plenty of it. It’s the reason why the tailgating experience is widely accepted as among the best in pro sports. Massive renovations can and have been done before. There’s no reason to believe they couldn’t convert the Ralph over the course of a few years into a modernized “top 20%” facility.

Article translation: the Governor of New York has yet to kiss the feet of Goodell and his up site benefactors. Expect pressure applied to NY politicians to endorse massive corporate welfare for billionaires…

That stadium is the only one in the league that has no public transportation to it..Buffalo needs a stadium downtown.
………………..
Clearly know nothing about the situation, at all.

#1) There are buses to Orchard Park from the city of Buffalo, every day.
#2) There is 0 infrastructure downtown for one. Where the streets would allow access, there simply isn’t the space for a NFL sized stadium and corresponding parking arrangements, without demolishing a lot of property. Where there is the space, i.e. along the waterfront, there is not the accessibility to it. You’re talking demolishing an elevated high way, building roads through parks and nature preserves, building bridges over a river.

The Ralph is a good stadium. The only away game I’ve been at was New Orleans last year. People were awesome but that stadium sucks, I mean the stairs are 3 ft tall and super steep, the video board is so small. And they have this terrible announcer that makes things worse